Simona Levi
Encyclopedia
Simona Levi is an Italian multidisciplinary artist and activist based in Barcelona
, Spain
, since 1990. She is a prominent activist in European social movement
s that support the free circulation of knowledge, and has actively participated in movements in defense of the right to housing
and the use of public space
.
in Paris
, where she worked as a programmer in the squatted arts space L’oeil du Cyclone. She started touring as an actress with several companies in 1982, eventually settling in Barcelona in 1990. In 1994 she set up Conservas in Barcelona’s Raval, a venue that promotes local, innovative, independent performing arts based on a self-production paradigm.
In 1999 she founded Compañia Conservas, and that same year the company presented its first stage production, Femina Ex Machina, directed by Levi and Dominique Grandmougin. The piece was awarded the FAD Special Critics Price and the Aplaudiment Award, and toured extensively to festivals and theatres in Europe (Spain
, France
, the UK
, Switzerland
, Italy
, Slovenia
, Norway
...) for more than two years. In 2003, again with Dominique Grandmougin, she directed the company’s second work, Seven Dust, which premièred at the Mercat de les Flors in Barcelona. The production toured through several European countries, including Italy, France, Belgium
, Switzerland, Finland
, Slovenia and Poland
. In 2007, with Marc Sampere, she co-directed the third show by Compañia Conservas, Realidades Avanzadas, which questioned representative democracy
and the concept of property. At the end of the show, audience members could take home a CD-ROM
with the texts, videos, music and images used in the show. The idea for the production was sparked by a video posted on YouTube
in October 2006 that denounced real estate speculation
and included footage recorded with a hidden camera in the anti-mobbing office at Barcelona City Council. The video was removed from YouTube at the request of the bank La Caixa
, which alleged copyright infringement
based on the use of images of one of its branches.
Since 2001 Simona Levi has directed the Performing and Applied Arts Festival InnMotion, which is held at the Centro de Cultura Contemporánea de Barcelona.
and royalties management. Since 2008, La-EX, with the support of Conservas, has organised the annual oXcars
non-competitive awards ceremony, which puts the spotlight on projects created in different arts disciplines based on the paradigm of free culture.
As a member of La-EX, she is also the coordinator of the FCForum
, an international arena in which organisations and experts in the field of free/libre knowledge and culture work towards creating a global strategic framework for action and coordination. She is also a founding member of Red Sostenible, a citizen platform created in January 2010 to fight against the introduction of the anti-download legislation known as the “Sinde Law” in Spain, and to defend Internet rights.
In 2010, she appeared before the European Union
Parliamentary Sub-Committee on Intellectual Property Law reform to defend the proposals contained in the “Charter for Innovation, Creativity and Access to Knowledge”, a document that was drafted collectively by participants of the FCForum. In her intervention, she offered an overview of some of the omissions in the legislation and suggested possible solutions set out in the Charter, such as the abolition of Spain’s levy for private copying
or “canon digital” and the need to restructure copyright collecting societies, claiming that they “hinder the free circulation of knowledge and sustainability for authors.”
In recent years, she has participated as a speaker and observer at national and international events, where she talks about the La-EX project, the current royalties management situation and possible alternatives to this model. She has spoken at the Ministerial Forum for Creative Europe (The Czech Republic
), Transmediale (Berlin
), Economies of the Commons (Amsterdam
) and at the Sustainable Economy Law and the Internet seminar at the Telecommunications Technical Engineering Faculty at UPM. As a representative of the FCForum, she is a lobbyist at the European Commission
.
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, since 1990. She is a prominent activist in European social movement
Social movement
Social movements are a type of group action. They are large informal groupings of individuals or organizations focused on specific political or social issues, in other words, on carrying out, resisting or undoing a social change....
s that support the free circulation of knowledge, and has actively participated in movements in defense of the right to housing
Right to housing
The right to housing is the economic, social and cultural right to adequate housing and shelter. It is recognised in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.- Definition :...
and the use of public space
Public space
A public space is a social space such as a town square that is open and accessible to all, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, age or socio-economic level. One of the earliest examples of public spaces are commons. For example, no fees or paid tickets are required for entry, nor are the entrants...
.
Artistic career
A stage director, actress and dancer by training, Simona Levi studied performing artsPerforming arts
The performing arts are those forms art which differ from the plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own body, face, and presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal or paint which can be molded or transformed to create some physical art object...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where she worked as a programmer in the squatted arts space L’oeil du Cyclone. She started touring as an actress with several companies in 1982, eventually settling in Barcelona in 1990. In 1994 she set up Conservas in Barcelona’s Raval, a venue that promotes local, innovative, independent performing arts based on a self-production paradigm.
In 1999 she founded Compañia Conservas, and that same year the company presented its first stage production, Femina Ex Machina, directed by Levi and Dominique Grandmougin. The piece was awarded the FAD Special Critics Price and the Aplaudiment Award, and toured extensively to festivals and theatres in Europe (Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
...) for more than two years. In 2003, again with Dominique Grandmougin, she directed the company’s second work, Seven Dust, which premièred at the Mercat de les Flors in Barcelona. The production toured through several European countries, including Italy, France, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, Switzerland, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, Slovenia and Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. In 2007, with Marc Sampere, she co-directed the third show by Compañia Conservas, Realidades Avanzadas, which questioned representative democracy
Representative democracy
Representative democracy is a form of government founded on the principle of elected individuals representing the people, as opposed to autocracy and direct democracy...
and the concept of property. At the end of the show, audience members could take home a CD-ROM
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
with the texts, videos, music and images used in the show. The idea for the production was sparked by a video posted on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
in October 2006 that denounced real estate speculation
Speculation
In finance, speculation is a financial action that does not promise safety of the initial investment along with the return on the principal sum...
and included footage recorded with a hidden camera in the anti-mobbing office at Barcelona City Council. The video was removed from YouTube at the request of the bank La Caixa
La Caixa
La Caixa , formally Caixa d'Estalvis i Pensions de Barcelona , is currently Europe’s leading savings bank and Spain's third largest financial institution, with a network of over 5,500 branches, more than 8,100 ATMs, a workforce in excess of 27,000 and more than 10.7 million...
, which alleged copyright infringement
Copyright infringement
Copyright infringement is the unauthorized or prohibited use of works under copyright, infringing the copyright holder's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.- "Piracy" :...
based on the use of images of one of its branches.
Since 2001 Simona Levi has directed the Performing and Applied Arts Festival InnMotion, which is held at the Centro de Cultura Contemporánea de Barcelona.
Activism
Simona Levi is one of the founders of eXgae (now La-EX), a non-profit association created in 2008 which explores alternative models for cultural diffusionCultural diffusion
In cultural anthropology and cultural geography, cultural diffusion, as first conceptualized by Alfred L. Kroeber in his influential 1940 paper Stimulus Diffusion, or trans-cultural diffusion in later reformulations, is the spread of cultural items—such as ideas, styles, religions, technologies,...
and royalties management. Since 2008, La-EX, with the support of Conservas, has organised the annual oXcars
Oxcars
The oXcars are a non-competitive awards ceremony held at Sala Apolo in Barcelona, Spain, in October each year. They are a public showcase that puts the spotlight on cultural creation and distribution carried out under the paradigms of shared culture....
non-competitive awards ceremony, which puts the spotlight on projects created in different arts disciplines based on the paradigm of free culture.
As a member of La-EX, she is also the coordinator of the FCForum
Free Culture Forum
The Free Culture Forum is an international encounter of civic society actors on free culture, digital rights and access to knowledge. It took place in Barcelona for the first time from October 30 to November 1, 2009 and second time from the 28th to the 31st of October 2010...
, an international arena in which organisations and experts in the field of free/libre knowledge and culture work towards creating a global strategic framework for action and coordination. She is also a founding member of Red Sostenible, a citizen platform created in January 2010 to fight against the introduction of the anti-download legislation known as the “Sinde Law” in Spain, and to defend Internet rights.
In 2010, she appeared before the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
Parliamentary Sub-Committee on Intellectual Property Law reform to defend the proposals contained in the “Charter for Innovation, Creativity and Access to Knowledge”, a document that was drafted collectively by participants of the FCForum. In her intervention, she offered an overview of some of the omissions in the legislation and suggested possible solutions set out in the Charter, such as the abolition of Spain’s levy for private copying
Private copying levy
A private copying levy is a government-mandated scheme in which a special tax or levy is charged on purchases of recordable media. Such taxes are in place in various countries and the income is typically allocated to the developers of "content"...
or “canon digital” and the need to restructure copyright collecting societies, claiming that they “hinder the free circulation of knowledge and sustainability for authors.”
In recent years, she has participated as a speaker and observer at national and international events, where she talks about the La-EX project, the current royalties management situation and possible alternatives to this model. She has spoken at the Ministerial Forum for Creative Europe (The Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
), Transmediale (Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
), Economies of the Commons (Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
) and at the Sustainable Economy Law and the Internet seminar at the Telecommunications Technical Engineering Faculty at UPM. As a representative of the FCForum, she is a lobbyist at the European Commission
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
.